Corn Seed Corruption Proven, Director Of PT SAM Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison

MATARAM - The panel of judges at the Mataram District Court, West Nusa Tenggara, sentenced PT Sinta Agro Mandiri (SAM) Director Aryanto Prametu, who was accused of corruption in the procurement of hybrid variety III corn seeds, with a sentence of eight years in prison.

"Therefore, the defendant Aryanto Prametu has been sentenced to eight years in prison," said Chairman of the Catur Judges Bayu Sulistiyo reading out the verdict of defendant Aryanto at the Mataram Corruption Crime District Court, quoted by Antara, Monday, January 10.

The judge in his decision also sentenced the defendant Aryanto to a fine of Rp. 400 million, a subsidiary of three months in prison.

"If it is not paid, it will be replaced with imprisonment for three months," he said.

The judge also charged the defendant Aryanto with paying compensation for state losses according to the results of the audit of the NTB Representative Finance and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) worth IDR 7.87 billion.

"If they are not replaced within one month after the Inkracht decision, their assets will be confiscated to cover state losses," he said.

If the defendant's property is not sufficient to cover state losses, the judge requires him to replace it with a prison sentence of one year.

Defendant Aryanto was declared by the judge to have violated Article 2 paragraph 1 Juncto Article 18 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 20/2001 concerning Amendments to Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 31/1999 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption Juncto Article 55 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code according to the contents of the primary indictment .

Previously, the public prosecutor demanded that the defendant Aryanto be sentenced to nine years in prison and a fine of Rp600 million, a subsidiary of four months.

The public prosecutor also demanded that the defendant pay Rp. 7.87 billion as a substitute or a subsidiary of four years in prison.

The judge's consideration was that the sentence was lower than the prosecutor's demand, regarding the restoration of state finances when the case was still under investigation by prosecutors worth Rp. 7.5 billion. The recovery value is in accordance with the initial findings from the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia.

However, in the judge's decision, the state loss figure was seen from the results of the NTB BPKP audit which released Rp. 15.4 billion from the procurement value of 480 tons of corn seeds worth Rp. 17.25 billion.

"Deposits to the NTB Distanbun are counted as refunds of state losses," said Catur.

Both parties, namely the public prosecutor and the defendant, expressed their thoughts on the judge's decision.